21/4/2012

President’s diary: European envoys need to adjust to the changing times

It is not an edifying sight when esteemed ambassadors from Europe whine about being denied audience by our Head of State.

Gitau Warigi

In Summary

Prerogative: It is up to President Kibaki to decide whether he wants to sit down with Clinton or Cameron to endure a lecture on homosexual rights or spend time with the Chinese discussing building of highways and ports

GITAU WARIGI

It is not an edifying sight when esteemed ambassadors from Europe whine about being denied audience by our Head of State.

How can he? Is he forgetting who the powers-that-be in the world are?

I could acutely feel the pain of Her Excellency Margit Hellwig-Boette of Germany and His Excellency Etienne de Poncins of France who, at the Goethe Institute on Monday, complained abjectly that despite months of pleading, they had been denied an audience with President Kibaki.

Apparently, his diary is always full. The man seems to spare time only for the Chinese, they mumbled.

“It’s the choice of the Kenyan Government to whom it wants to give priority. If they feel China is an easier partner, so be it,” lamented Madame Hellwig-Boette, her bosom heaving with indignation.

Then Monsieur de Poncins put in his two bits’ worth, his long neck craning: “It is true that for months now, we have requested [unsuccessfully] to meet the President for dialogue.”

He gave a lovely French lilt to the President’s name, which he pronounced Kibakeee ...

The duo’s unusual outburst reminded me of jilted lovers. Moreover, there was the same tendency of wishing reality away which Scorned Ones never fail to display.

When Mrs Hellwig-Boette concedes that Kenya has a right to define her interests and make diplomatic choices accordingly, she makes her own complaint superfluous.

Indeed, it is up to President Kibaki to decide whether he wants to sit down with Hillary Clinton or David Cameron to endure a lecture on homosexual rights or spend time with the Chinese discussing the building of highways and ports.

And when the German lady goes on to say – “when I look at the number of times I am contacted by members of the Kenyan Government for help on small projects and initiatives, I don’t know whether they go as much to the Chinese ambassador to seek help” – she is unwittingly answering her own question why China matters more to Kenya.

It is precisely because China doesn’t do those “small projects.” They prefer big stuff, which suits Africa better. It is Europe which has been left to specialise in “small things”.

State House’s response to the grumbling was precise and devastating in its contempt.

“China and Japan have emerged as strategic development partners, especially in the area of infrastructural development that has been a key pillar of the President’s agenda,” an official statement said, which nowhere mentioned Europe.

Though I am sure the British High Commission shares exactly the same sentiments as the Germans and the French, you won’t catch the Brits grovelling in public about lack of access, much as they know they are in hotter soup with the government over allegedly forged letters and the International Criminal Court and all that.

While it is fine to espouse a “Haki Yetu” culture where everyone knows their rights, sometimes it is more useful thinking of how to put food on the table or having a good road that will get you to work easily or to a hospital that is well stocked with medicine.

The world is changing, and Their Excellencies from Europe will need to adjust to the times.

China is already the world’s second-largest economy and looks set before this decade is over to become the first.

Again this year, Brazil overtook hallowed Britain to become the sixth economic power in the world, and I bet before this year is out, the country will overtake France to become the fifth.

Coddling small egos representing countries whose economies and global power are rapidly dwindling doesn’t make a lot of sense.

Even the nuclear club, which has been the measure of global pre-eminence is no longer exclusive.

North Korea, reclusive as it is, has since startled the world by gate-crashing the club.

And Iran is definitely on its way there, whatever Israel thinks about it or plans to do.